So after a few months of teaching English I was really starting to enjoy it. Teaching English is very rewarding especially to adults who really value and appreciate the knowledge that you are sharing with them. However, most of the students tended to come to their English class, learn a little and then leave and not practice again until their next class, which was often not for another week! To truly learn English I think it is necessary to practice in a free way, expressing your real thoughts to other people not just going through controlled exercises in a class. So In November 2009 I started the first English Language Club facebook group. The aim was to create a social network of people in the local area of Asuncion who wanted more than just classes. Once we had a few members we started meeting regularly. It was pretty slow at first with only one person coming in to any of the meeting we did in 2009 but in 2010 it started to grow. We soon developed a core of dedicated members who have become good friends and practice English together regularly as well as having a handful of other members who attend occasionally and many who come when they can. We have done many things together, mainly eating and drinking in bars but also Bowling, Karaoke and there is even talk about the possibility of doing a camp.

I am originally from the UK but my father is from Paraguay in South America. I visited Paraguay between October 2008 and February 2009 to visit family and improve my Spanish (still a long way to go!). I was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with my life and career in England and wanted a change so during my 3 month visit I decided to come back a bit more long term. But what was I going to do? Well teaching English seemed like a good option. So I went to see someone who worked in an English Language Institute to see if they would give me a job. They said that if I got myself a CELTA (Certificate of English Language Teaching for Adults) then they would happily give me a job. So although I never really intended to teach English it became the best option for me. So in February 2009 I went back to England, enrolled on a CELTA which ran for 4 weeks in April and bought a ticket back to Paraguay for June.

After being here for a few months I realised that not only was I one of the only teachers at the institute with a qualification of it’s kind, I was also one of the only native speaking teachers. I also found that I really liked teaching and that I was good at it. The students enjoy my classes and it is satisfying to see them progress.

In the next post I will explain the problem with learning English just in a classroom setting and how I hope to help people overcome this.